Mysuru: In Mysuru and Mandya districts, traditional rivals turned coalition partners Congress and Janata Dal (S) are forced to work together due to the poll alliance which has become a headache for the party leaders as some party cadres in Mysore when asked to work for Congress shouted pro Modi slogans.

A meeting was convened by JDS leader G T Devegowda in Mysuru on Friday, April 5, to guide his party workers in canvassing for Congress candidate C H Vijayashankar. In return, the Congress had to campaign for JDS candidate Nikhil Kumaraswamy in Mandya.

But the JDS workers expressed their anguish towards the Mandya Congress workers who were supporting Sumalatha instead of Nikhil.

Some JDS workers said that they had worked hard to defeat former chief minister Siddaramaiah. The then ruling party Congress had filed a complaint against them and they were facing legal action now.

The drift between the JDS and Congress workers increased after H D Devegowda alleged that the Congress workers were canvassing for Sumalatha instead of Nikhil.

CM Kumaraswamy too had also echoed the same issue in Koppa.

Not only the party cadres but some of the leaders of the alliance parties are also not in good terms. A joint party press meet scheduled last week at Mysore had to be cancelled when the JDS leaders did not turn up.

The top leadership has somehow managed to patch up the situation and a joint rally of Gowda and Siddaramaiah is scheduled for next week.

CM Kumaraswamy and former minister Tanvir Sait blamed BJP for pro-Modi slogans in G T Devegowda’s meeting. CM said that the BJP workers might have sneaked into the JD(S) meeting and shouted the pro-Modi slogans.

Tanvir Sait alleged that the BJP workers were trying to create a rift between JDS and Congress workers in Mysuru Loksabha Constituency by entering party meetings in disguise and disrupting the proceedings.